ABSTRACT
Visibility is the capacity to see or be seen. This is a primary way for humans to understand and know the world around us. Humans extend the concept of seeing to other types of knowledge such as understanding, making abstract concepts concrete, and creating relationships. Visibility characterises how exposed one thing is to another, whether it is an organism, object, event, or idea. As a physical experience, visibility is affected by aspects of our environment that support views such as scale, elevation, orientation, directionality, and the solid-void relationship. The two types of visibility important to urban design are axial visibility and field visibility. Axial visibility is the uninterrupted view possible in one direction along a narrow, straight sightline. In urban environments, visibility at multiple scales is not just about exposure. It also relates to construction of relationships, perceived comfort, and safety, as well as sensible and coherent environments.
